From Puke to Gratitude...

Today was a good day. My family was celebrating my brother Patrick's birthday at my Mom's so I was able to call home and talk to my Mom, Patrick, Maria, Dylan, Edna and my aunts and uncles. It was a pretty awesome way to start the morning!

Today we taught our Saturday classes to make up for the weekend. In my first class, their is a little boy named Leo who is always a bit of a rascal. He told me he was sleepy, but I thought he was just being silly like normal. I felt pretty bad when moments later he is throwing up all over the carpet! Poor little guy. He went outside to his mom, but then he was back before we could get it all cleaned up. I was able to get my TA to tell his mom he was not fit to be in class any longer that day. The rest of the class enjoyed the excitement, but we ended up having a pretty fun class otherwise.

I had an elementary class in the early afternoon that only has two students. We are learning how to form and ask questions. I made them up a little human bingo assignment where they had to go around to all the office staff and ask them questions. We had fun doing that. In the late afternoon, I was on an Oral Placement Testing (OPT) shift where I have time to curriculum plan until a new student shows up that needs to be tested in order to be placed in a class. I was able to hang out with the new teacher a bit and got a lot of work done. I was even able to give her one lesson plan for a class that she is having tomorrow.

I went out to dinner with a couple of teachers from school tonight. I walked over with my friend Sarah, who has been really kind and awesome to me about helping me feel that what I am feeling and going through is perfectly natural, just asked me how I was really doing. She told me that I have been doing all the right things, and I'll just continue to grow happier while I am here and make some good friendships. I believe her. She is leaving in two weeks to go live in another part of China with her fiance and I am going to miss her.

The other two girls came a little later and we got on the topic of families and friends from home. The three women were saying that their families don't communicate with them very often because they at least think, that there family and friends think they have made the choice to come here and leave them. I stayed pretty quiet because I feel grateful that I have people who have supported me through all stages of getting here and now living here and trying to make a go of it. Just having people reading this blog other then my Mom feels so wonderful! I'm a lucky girl.

Uncle Ladd's Corner: Okay, so Uncle Ladd didn't ask this question, but I think he would find this interesting. I learned tonight at dinner that China literally controls their weather! They shoot rockets up into the sky early in the morning hours when they are desperate for rain. I don't exactly understand the Science, but the rockets do something to the clouds. They do this more during the Winter than the Summer because Beijing often goes through a draught in the Winter. Fascinating! I'll keep you posted if I learn more.